[Boomer]

AAA and AARP were redundant for road trip hotel stays. Couldn’t use both.

Then we needed a tow truck. Trying to get AAA was a joke. Fortunately, we were back home at the time and knew the territory well, so we finally just called a known towing business, not AAA connected. They got there fast.

Your experience might be different. But we dropped AAA and kept AARP for the hotels and their interesting reading sometimes.

BUT, to those of you who think your Medicare is being protected by those you admire so much, please take the time to expand your sources of information by googling the phrase “plan to privatize Medicare.” Get the whole picture. The plan to privatize Medicare is alive and lurking.

Most lobbyists have bottomless pockets and the insurance industry is loaded. Politics is a lucrative business for the self-serving. (said Boomer, stating the obvious) Therefore, I have no problem with a watchdog on my Medicare — yeah, I know, those watchdogs are lobbyists, too. . .

And, yes, AARP is connected with United Healhcare for all those choices of types of plans. And, yes, insurance companies now get a piece of the Medicare action. BUT, for now, ‘choice’ is the operative word.

Privatization of Medicare would hamstring your right to choose the type of Medicare coverage you want.

Some now choose to have an Advantage plan where the private insurance companies get paid directly by Medicare to take on the risk, turning over total management of your healthcare to those highly profitable private companies. Granted, the premiums are less expensive than having Medicare as the primary and your choice of a supplement as the secondary. And Advantage plans seem to work fine for some. BUT, they were allowed to choose an Advantage plan.

AND, you can bet your sweet bippy that if Medicare were to be privatized, there would be no more choice of having Medicare as primary with the secondary plan of your choosing.

But. . .most “believers” will not bother to look between the lines of those promises to protect Medicare. Be careful what you wish for — and please read up on this stuff.

But (sigh) I will not kid myself. Those who need to recognize this will never bother to learn what they do not want to learn. . .

And, btw, I guess I should not really care if some choose to go like lambs to the slaughter believing those promises to “protect” Medicare — but I do care because as they go — so go the rest of us — so I have to keep trying to get the believers to learn more about what could be in their future. Please understand that it all depends on what the word ‘protect’ means in those promises. Words matter — as does the nuance of words.

Cassandra Boomer (Medicare, Primary, Plan F Supplement)